Studio Production: Dress Rehearsals

Dress rehearsals

Everything became real as soon as the set was put up. This is when I realised how precise everything needed to be for the show. 


What we did/ What the day consisted of;
On the dress rehearsal the day before the show, we were assigned our camera assistants and all the other roles that were required via the first years were put into position. My main focus on this day was to make sure all the kit was correctly set up to the best of our ability to make it as easy as possible for the big day. 

My first task was to get the camera equipment downstairs and to set up. The only thing about this is that we had to wait for the set design group to finalise the set before we went there otherwise we would've been in their way. So this meant we had around a 1 to 2 hour delay in set up.  However we made sure to be as efficient as possible and decided to set up what we could upstairs so it would save time for when we were actually aloud downstairs. 

The Set up;
When setting up the cameras upstairs we made sure to go through all the necessary settings such as making sure the white balance was set to "MEM" which meant manual. because from experience from previous set ups during other rehearsals, we found it very difficult to match up all the cameras because the white balance would automatically change during the show. We took the pre emotive route to correct this. The next part of the set up was our Iris set up/ F stop set up. Even though we weren't on the studio floor, we knew that the F stop that we always use was "F2.4" as this gave the right balance of exposure. Even though we knew the lighting would be different once we got into the studio, we thought it would be a good idea to unify the cameras as much as possible. Another important part about the camera set ups was the empty batter/full memory card sound. We knew how important it would be to turn the notification sound off as it created a loud beeping noise that would most probably be able to be picked up on the microphones. It took a little while to locate the right setting because this is something that we have never had to do before but after a while of fiddling around in the menu settings we were able to locate it and shut it off. 

After doing what we could with the camera settings, we were then allowed into the studio to make a proper set up. We were then accompanied by our camera assistants to help as well. It is only on this day I realised how necessary it was to have a camera assistant. The set up became so much faster as we were all able to work as a team co operatively. 

The back to back rehearsals;
For me the first two rehearsals were quite shaky as this was the first time we would be using the real set. It is quite different from the fake set because the props where bigger.  One of the main things I struggled with was the major prop from Round 4 where the big sliding board was introduced. This is because during practice we used a prop that did not stand at and angle, instead it stood straight upwards which allowed me to practice having my shots a certain way, however the actual prop was tilted backwards and for me this made my shots seem a little distorted and made it much more harder for me to frame up for a split screen. Although after a few rounds of practice I was able to frame it perfectly. 

Another important thing that I learnt from these dress rehearsals is how important it is to work with the lighting crew to get the cameras set up. It never occurred to me that the lighting which is chosen by them would affect our white balance set up and other settings. During all of our other rehearsals we became so used to having no lighting that we became comfortable with the idea of our simple set up. So when one of the lighting crew members came down and asked me what my camera set up was I was a little confused. At this point we seemed to be having trouble with the camera's matching up due to the lights. Even thought we had it on the settings that we usually had, some cameras  were ridiculously green and some were very washed out. it was apparent that we would need to find a solution for this as there wasn't a lot of time before the real show. This is were I learnt a new setting on the camera, one that was there all along but it never occurred to me to try it. the lighting crew guys told us to put our cameras on the "factory daylight preset" this required a simple switch on the camera which made the white balance go to "3200k". The cameras now begun to look the same but required a few more tweaks. Since the lights were now on and the crew were experimenting with their settings, we had to bump up our F stop a bit more because there was obviously more light coming through from the studio lights. The usual f stop we worked at normally was "f2.4" but it now worked best at "f3.8". After adjusting this, all the cameras became unified and were ready to shoot. I was proud at the teams ability to troubleshoot and learn new techniques. I now know how important it is to work entirely as a team and to always be open to suggestions from those who you wouldn't normally expect it from because it will most likely help the project.

One more thing that I learned from this rehearsal is the importance of having a neat and professional work space. Del made a point that the handwritten numbers that we needed on our cameras didn't look professional and screamed "college production". This resulted in liaising with the camera assistants to get some numbers printed. In the end our cameras looked very clear and professional; 

The TX Show

After our back to back rehearsals, it was now time for the show. I was extremely nervous because all of our hard work lead up to this moment that would be over within 30 minutes. After a fire exit briefing, it was now time to begin the show. 

In my opinion it started off very well for me, everything was going to plan until I started thinking about what I was doing too much. It made my mind go blank and I actually ended up getting stuck a little bit but thankfully it wasn't noticeable as I was on a shot that was locked off. However my nerves got the better of me and I ended up making one of the biggest mistakes which is moving when your shot is on air. There was one point where I had to get singles of the the contestants talking after winning and my camera was on a shot where the contestant wasn't talking so I moved it to the person who was talking. My issue here is that I moved ahead of my command, in that split second I made an assumption instead of listening to the commands. I did not hear the Director say "cut to --" and I rushed before the command. I was really disappointed with myself after this because I felt like my mistake was so obvious and would've let the whole team down. In my opinion we were doing so well before that happened and it put a bit of a downer on it for me. It was very aggravating because I never made a mistake like that in the rehearsals and it just so happened that my nerves got the best of me.

In the future I really need to learn how to calm down and how to mentally prepare myself for things like this. I really enjoyed the buzz it gave me but next time I need to find a balance and just learnt to concentrate even more because that can hinder the show or any other project for that matter. But for the most part, I really enjoyed it and if I could go back and re do the show, I honestly would. From his whole experience it has made me realise how much I want to be a part of this Television experience because there really isn't anything else like it. I am very fortunate to be able to have these experiences that allow me to bridge the gap between a student world and the professional world. I feel more than prepared for whatever may come my way in the future.